to serve the mounted guard, and to carry his slippers for six months. Throughout his reign the roads were secure, such was the awe he inspired. He had earlier sent his son al-Masʿūd, who conquered Yemen, gathered great wealth, then set out for the pilgrimage; there he died, and his treasuries were brought back to al-Kāmil.

Al-Bahāʾ Zuhayr (1) said:
“I swear, had the yellow-skinned foe tasted so much as a wink of sleep,
their dreams would have been filled with the sight of your yellow banners.
For three full years and some months you stood firm in jihad—
needing help from neither Zayd nor ʿAmr.”

Ibn Wāṣil said: He first appointed Ṣafī al-Dīn as vizier, and when he died he appointed no one else, handling affairs himself. He was formidable, decisive, and shrewd, and Egypt prospered in his days. He would pose questions in jurisprudence and grammar; whoever answered them won his favor. The robes of investiture for the sultanate were brought to him by al-Suhrawardī in the year 604 AH, together with the formal commission for Egypt; it was a day to behold. The regalia consisted of a wide-sleeved robe embroidered with gold, a turban, a collar, and the like.

Among his determined undertakings: when the Franks seized Damietta (2) he founded, a single post-stage away, the city of al-Manṣūra, settled there on the frontier, and remained stationed until Allah granted him victory. The Franks, coveting Egypt, encamped near al-Manṣūra, and battle raged for days. Al-Kāmil pressed his brothers to come; his two brothers al-Ashraf and al-Muʿaẓẓam arrived with a vast, fully equipped army. Islam grew stronger, the courage of the Franks ebbed, their envoys shuttled back and forth, and al-Kāmil before the arrival of reinforcements offered them Jerusalem, Tiberias, Ascalon, and Jabala.